Demands for increased munition portability, versatility, and ruggedness have lead to the recent development and implementation of containerized guided missiles, which are stowed within specialized launch containers prior to launch. As do non-containerized guided missiles, containerized guided missiles typically include a homing guidance system or “seeker” containing one or more electromagnetic (“EM”) radiation sensors, which detect electromagnetic radiation emitted by or reflected from a designated target. A containerized guided missile also typically includes a nose-mounted seeker dome, which protects the seeker's components while enabling transmission of electromagnetic waves within the sensor bandwidth(s) through the dome and to the seeker's EM radiation sensors.
In contrast to many conventional guided missiles, containerized guided missiles are prone to dome contamination during missile launch. Guided by the walls of the surrounding launch container, exhaust from the missile's rocket motor flows over and around the missile body in an aft-fore direction during missile launch to blow-off the container cover and thereby facilitate passage of the missile through the container's open end. Direct exposure between the motor exhaust and seeker dome can thus occur during missile launch, which may result in the deposition of harsh chemicals, soot, and other exhaust materials over the dome's outer surface. Dome contamination can block, attenuate, or otherwise interfere with the transmission of electromagnetic signals through the dome and thereby negatively impact the missile's guidance capabilities.
It is known that a dome cover can be positioned over a missile dome to minimize or prevent dome contamination during missile launch. However, inflight removal of the dome cover is required to enable subsequent operation of the seeker's EM radiation sensors. Various types of deployment systems (e.g., actuators and timing electronics) have been developed that can effectively remove a dome cover by either ejecting the cover (if fabricated from a non-frangible material) or by initiating fracture of the cover (if fabricated from a frangible material) during or immediately after missile launch. While able to effectively remove a dome cover at a desired time of deployment, such deployment systems add undesirable complexity, cost, bulk, and weight to the guided missile. Tether-pull dome cover systems have been suggested that do not require an actuator or timing electronics; however, a relatively lengthy tether is typically required to ensure that the dome cover is not removed until the missile has cleared any forward-expanding exhaust plume created during missile launch. Consequently, tether-pull dome cover systems also tend to be undesirably heavy and bulky. In addition, tether-pull dome cover systems and certain non-frangible, actuator-deployed dome covers can produce undesirably large, high-energy debris upon dome deployment.
There thus exists an ongoing need to provide embodiments of a guided munition including a dome cover that mitigates most, if not all, of the above-described limitations. In particular, it would be desirable to provide embodiments of a guided munition, such as a containerized guided munition, including a dome cover that reliably self-deploys at a desired time without the aid of an actuator, timing electronics, or similar devices. Ideally, such a self-deploying dome cover would also be relatively compact, inexpensive to implement, and would produce little to no high-energy debris upon deployment. Other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent Detailed Description and the appended Claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying Drawings and this Background.